Published in 1986 in Weirdo #17, R. Crumb illustrated sci-fi legend Philip K. Dick's now famous religious experience, a hallucinatory spiritual "exegesis" in which he believed he encountered a God-like presence. If you are new to R. Crumb, we suggest you check out one of his fantastic anthologies. If you're new to Philip K. Dick, you're probably not. His books have been adapted into classic films such as Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, and Minority Report.

Taschen has released a fantastic six-volume set of R. Crumb's sketchbooks, based on the original hard-bound, slip-cased, seven-volume series released by the German publisher Zweitausendeins between 1981 and 1997. As Taschen notes, "Unlike the previous edition, which included every doodle ever made by the preeminent underground artist, our edition has been personally edited by the notoriously fastidious artist to include only what he considers his best work, reproduced directly from the original sketchbooks."

R. Crumb is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream. Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded as its most prominent figure. Though one of the most celebrated of comic book artists, Crumb's entire career has unfolded outside the mainstream comic book publishing industry.

We just received an advance copy of a great new book, Norton & Co's R. Crumb: The Complete Record Cover Collection. The content of the book extends back to 1966, when Janis Jopllin asked Crumb to draw the cover of her legendary record, Cheap Thrills.

For some of you, including ourselves, putting Kafka and R. Crumb's names in the same header is reason to be excited, with or without an exhibition at Tony Shafrazi Gallery in NYC. But the latter is true, with Kafka's life as well as his most famous stories including "Metamorphosis" and "The Trial," are told through Crumb's pen & ink drawings.